St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-11-19
THE PLUMAGE OF BIRDS.
English Ladies Decide to Use 1t No
Longer as a Trimming.

English Ladies Detlsae ~ SSC ~ A<~
Longer as a Trimming.
Ats conference ofladies, held in Bond street,
London, a few days ago on the subject OF dress.
it was decided that the plumage of small
birds should no longer be considered as FASH
ionable trimming for robes or bonnets.
Commenting ON this resolution, the Standard
remarks: In vain have the Audubon Society
and the American Ornithoogists' Union
protested, in vain has the Selborne Society in
this country endeavOred for years to show
the folly and the cruelty Of the sacrifice OF
millions of the brightest ornaments of field
and grove to the lowest form of female van
ity. Fashion had sent forth its ukase, women
continued to obey the decree, and so long as
women continued to stick hummlng-blrds in
their bonnets and guls' wings in their hats,
wear mutfs of the breasts OF slaughtered
grebes, or, as in the instance of a Nevada
plutocrat's wife, send sharpshooters to New
Guinea to kill birds of Paradise in order
to sew their gorgeous pelts INTO nantes so
long did the dealers send their collectors out.
A curious observer has put on record that In
one tramway car in Madison avenue. In
New York, he counted eleven women who
wore birds. The species thus distributed
were found to be the heads and wings OF
three starlngs, an entire bird of unknown
Species seven warblers representing four
Species large tern, the head and wings OF
three shore larks, the wings OF seven shore
larks and grasstinches, one-halt OF a gaa-
linule, small tern, a turtle-dove, vlreO
and yellow, breasted chat and a number OF
ostrich plumes. Altogether it has been cal
culated that fully 100000 Of BIRDS are
annually destroyed in the United States
alone to supply the home demand, and that
at least as many again are exported to
Europe and other countries.
P,1tN A &c 1nt 20 Ivy ~
nent which is robbed of its feathered inhab-
tants for this contemplate purpose. South
America sends many, Europe few, and
host come from Africa, Australia, the Pa
puan islands and India. In one shop IN
London there were sold during the four
months ended April 1885, no fewer than
-t04 i4 West Indian and Brazilian bird skins
and 800, 3s9 East Indian ones, besides thou
sands of 1mpeyan pheasants and birds OF
Paradise. One collector for the dealers pre-
pared during a three months trip in South
Carolina as many as 11,01S skins, and the
same person has lately boosted that on an
average he sells 3O,0Ona year to be cut up for
millinery purposes. A single village in
Long Island sent in four months 10000
pelts to New York and a Paris firm
contracted with an enterprising woman at
Cobb's Island, on the Virginia coast, to de-
liver to them 10000 or more, gull and tern
skins during the past summer-each skin
oles, tanagers, grosbeaks, cedar wax-wings,
bluebirds, meadow larks and golden-winged
woodpeckers are in great favor. Sea birds OF
white or delicate shades of color are so eagerly
bought that there are many professional
shooters who confne themselves to this
branch of commerce. At Marlborough Head
and the Fern islands on our own coast con-
slant fusilade is going on; and in the Heb
rides, Shetlands, and Orkneys the destruction
is even greater. One man exports upward
of thousand month to France; and
in Long Island near New York, as
many as 3nh' SKINS Of the sea swallow
are sent to market in early spring, when the
plumage is at its best We read in one Of
those personal descriptions of society
ladies' in which the Americans so delight
that a certain belle had her gown of unre-
lieved black looled up with blackbirdi
ana winged creature SO dusky that it could
have been intended for nothing but crow
reposed among the coils and braids of her
hair" 1t is to be hoped that we have seen
the last of this cruel folly. To slaughter by
the million in the interests of fashion the
most lovely OF birds is cruelty to them and
ini1,ry to ZIG